


Small Ticking Timebombs

by withdraw



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Episode: s02e15 Revelations, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Post Revelations, Team as Family, Trauma, Triggers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:46:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24866278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withdraw/pseuds/withdraw
Summary: The BAU team knows how to manage each other's traumas.  It's the unspoken requirement of the job.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 199





	Small Ticking Timebombs

**Author's Note:**

> In my head, this is the first or second case they take after Revelations.

The next case isn’t in Atlanta, but it’s still way too soon after Tobias Hankel to be back in Georgia. Reid starts talking as soon as the wheels of the jet leave the tarmac in Virginia and doesn’t stop, all through the flight and the ride to the station, until they’re face to face with the detective in charge, a stocky, annoyed man by the name of Mitchell, who looks him up and down and snarls, “What would you know about it, boy?”

JJ flinches. Reid takes an involuntary step back. A few feet away, Hotch is on the phone with Gideon, who went straight from the plane to the crime scene, so he misses it, but Derek and Emily share a look. Reid stutters into silence and Hotch ends his call and pulls Detective Mitchell to the board to go over the preliminary details. It falls to Derek and Emily to pick up the pieces. Emily leads JJ to sit down. Derek turns to Reid. 

“It’s just the south, man,” he says. Reid nods rapidly in fake agreement and paws through his satchel. 

“The south, yeah. I’m going to use the restroom before we get started,” he says. Reid darts away from him. As the bathroom door swings closed at Reid’s back, JJ looks up in a panic.

“Where’s Reid?” she demands and stands so quickly out of the chair that she throws Emily off balance. JJ starts forward and Derek stops her with a hand on her shoulder.

“He’s in the bathroom,” he tries to explain, but JJ doesn’t hear him.

“He’s gone! Where is he?” 

Emily joins them, and together they push JJ back toward the chairs. 

“Go and get him,” Emily hisses at Derek. At the board, Mitchell and Hotch are deep in discussion and haven’t noticed the disturbance. Derek would like to keep it that way.

When he enters the restroom, Reid is braced against the counter with his head down, eerily still. 

“Hey,” Derek says. Reid looks up at him, a little blank around the edges, and Derek feels a sudden, creeping sense of unease.

“JJ needs help,” he says. Reid pushes himself up immediately. 

“JJ?” He asks. Derek nods. 

“She’s freaked out and she needs to know where you are.“ Reid nods his understanding, tucks his hair back, and brushes past Derek to the door. He stumbles a little as he pushes it open. Derek frowns.

Reid goes to where JJ is sitting and drops into the empty wooden chair next to her, but then immediately stands again. He sits again and then stands again, popping up and down like a jack-in-the-box. It’s enough to draw Hotch’s attention from Detective Mitchell. Hotch stiffens when his eyes land on Reid. It’s the only warning Derek gets before Reid roughly kicks the chair away from him, He kneels on the concrete floor so he can take JJ’s hand and look up at her face. The chair crashes to the ground and Detective Mitchell turns to them with a startled exclamation. Hotch meets Derek’s eyes with a hard look, then leads the detective away.

Derek takes a deep breath to steady himself. For a moment, he can’t tell what set Reid off, but then he spots it: the hard-backed chair. 

JJ reaches out blindly and grabs Reid by his elbow. He winces, but doesn’t pull away. Though Emily manages to calm them, Derek can feel the tension fizzing in the air, like a firework right before it explodes.

Derek’s not sure how they get any work done that day, but somehow it happens. Hotch spends the day running interference with the detective. Reid won’t sit down and alternates between standing in front of the board, lax and a little unfocused, and pacing around the table. JJ needs to go to the victim’s family, but every time she grabs her keys, she puts them down again and stands next to Reid. Derek and Emily pull most of the profile together on their own. 

Detective Mitchell manages to slip Hotch’s grip midafternoon and smashes into their little corner like a bulldozer. He doesn’t say anything this time, but he doesn’t have to. Reid turns his back to a corner, raising his hands to his chest in a defensive gesture that makes Derek’s blood boil, and JJ clenches her jaw so hard they can all hear her teeth grind. She stands slightly in front of Reid with her hands on her hips. Derek realizes with a jolt that she isn’t wearing her gun and that Emily is wearing two. 

Derek suddenly needs to get them as far away from here as he can. 

“Agent Prentiss will fill you in,” Derek says. “The rest of us are needed at the scene.” He guides Reid and JJ past the detective with a hand on each shoulder. Emily nods at him and steps up like Derek didn’t just drop this on her with no warning. Derek owes her one when this is all over. 

Derek gets them into the SUV and drives with no destination in mind. It’s all farmland outside the city limits and he knows JJ can’t do farms and Reid can’t do woods, so he sets a meandering path through the city. 

“I thought we were needed at the dumpsite,” JJ says after a couple of minutes. 

“I lied,” Derek tells her. “Just take some time and breathe. Hotch and Emily have us covered for a while.” 

At his side in the front passenger seat, Reid pulls at the knots in his shoelaces. 

“My feet hurt,” Reid says. 

“You’ve been standing all day,” Derek points out. 

“Yeah,” Reid agrees. His voice is small and Derek knows that’s not the reason. 

Derek pulls over at a park and does a quick scan before anyone gets out. It’s small and quiet. The grounds are well-tended and barked over. It’s late March in the middle of a heatwave, so the shade trees are green and full. There’s a  _ no dogs _ sign on the edge of the parking lot. Two moms sit on a bench while their children run around. Safe. 

Reid makes a beeline for the sandbox. JJ hovers next to him for a time, then drifts away to walk a long, slow circle around the play structure, drawn by the sound of children laughing. Derek stands over Reid while he sits on the edge of the sandbox, pulls off his shoes and socks, and sticks his bare feet in the warm sand, piling it up his ankles and legs. 

The two moms approach him with that  _ hello can we help you _ look, so Derek flashes his badge at them. They look down at Reid, who has leaned over to stick his hands in the sand next to his feet. His head rests on his knees and his hair falls over his face. The moms soften when they look at him and leave them alone. Derek watches as JJ wanders out of the shade and closes her eyes, turning her face up to the sun. It was cold the last time they were in Georgia. The blood steamed. 

A second black SUV parks next to theirs. Gideon comes out and ambles towards them, taking his time as he assesses the situation. Sometimes Derek would kill to know what that guy is thinking, but today isn’t one of those days. Whatever Gideon might think, Derek knows this was necessary. 

Hotch or Prentiss must have let him know what’s been happening because all Gideon says as he comes up to Derek is a quiet “I’ve got him,” so Derek leaves them and joins JJ in the sun. He stands with her until he starts to feel uncomfortably hot. JJ opens her eyes and smiles at him, then slips her hand into his as they walk together back to the sandbox. 

Gideon has followed Reid’s example and stuck his bare feet into the sand. They sit together, Reid unmoving and Gideon sifting sand through his fingers. Whenever Reid shifts and accidentally unearths a hand or foot, Gideon pushes sand over it until Reid is covered again. JJ leans her head against Morgan’s shoulder. It’s quiet. 

“The dumpsite is remote,” Gideon says finally. Reid makes a low humming noise of agreement.

“He knew the area,” Reid says into his knees. 

“Park ranger?” JJ offers.

“Or maybe someone who likes to hike,” Morgan adds. “Either way, he’s local.”

Their phones all ping at the same time, but no one checks the message. JJ straightens and Gideon waits for Reid to sit up before pulling his feet out of the sandbox. Gideon doesn’t put his shoes and socks back on, but Reid does, meticulously brushing the sand from between his toes. 

As they make their way back to the SUVs, the moms watch them go with sad smiles. It’s the sort of small, good thing that Derek holds on to in the middle of a case: the sympathy of people who don’t even know the story.

* * *

At the end of the day, Gideon decides to stay late and Hotch shepherds everyone else out, bringing up the rear of their little group like an overprotective watchdog. They stand in a huddle in the hotel entrance, each unwilling to leave the others alone.

“My room,” Derek announces, and they all follow his lead.

Derek, Hotch, and Prentiss take the upright, uncomfortable chairs, and JJ and Reid sit on the bed. Reid hands JJ pillows to prop behind her back, then sits on the edge, digging his knuckles into his eyes. He looks a little glassy-eyed and uncoordinated. Derek’s creeping sense of unease grows into an uncontrollable worry.

Derek turns on the TV to whatever old movie is being rerun. Reid and JJ don’t even last 30 minutes. They fall asleep in the middle of the first musical number, JJ slumped into the pillows and Reid curled into a tight ball at her side, his spine pressing against her hip. 

Derek turns the TV off. Hotch sighs.

“I saw Reid having trouble with the wooden chairs, but not what started it,” Hotch says. Emily and Derek share a look.

“Detective Mitchell called Reid ‘boy,’” Emily says. “With the accent, he sounds like--” She breaks off with a shake of her head.

“He sounds like Hankel’s father,” Hotch finishes for her. Derek thinks back to Reid burying himself in warm sand and JJ standing in the sun.

“And they have the AC blasting. It’s cold inside,” he adds. 

Reid whimpers in his sleep and shifts. With the ease of an experienced father, Hotch reaches over to twitch the blanket up around his shoulder and rests a hand on Reid’s back until he settles.

“We need a plan for tomorrow,” Hotch says quietly.

“Send Reid with JJ to the victim’s family,” Derek says. “JJ needs to go and it’ll keep them out of the station.”

“I don’t think JJ will go without Reid anyway,” Emily adds. “She almost followed him into the bathroom earlier.”

“Good,” Hotch says with a nod. “Prentiss, you go with Gideon to speak with the coroner. Morgan and I will stay at the station.”

Every member of the team can be dangerous, but Derek knows that he and Hotch are the only ones who  _ look _ dangerous. Hotch knows it too. 

“Do you want us to move them to their own beds?” Emily asks. Derek shakes his head. 

“Leave them. You know if we wake them up they won’t go back to sleep.”

Emily helps ease JJ down flat. Hotch takes one of the pillows for Reid’s head and tosses another one to Derek. 

“Call me if you want me to take over,” he says and then they’re both gone. 

Derek punches the pillow into the corner of an uncomfortable chair and settles in for a long night. 

* * *

In the morning, Derek wakes to find an empty bed and a note on the nightstand.  _ Woke up Spence to get ready. Sorry for crashing _ , he reads in JJ’s neat script. In the corner is a lopsided frowny face. Derek recognizes Reid’s handiwork. 

Reid knocks on his door right as Derek finishes tying his shoelaces. Sometimes his timing is uncanny. Derek opens the door to find Reid holding a tray of coffee cups. 

“I must be your first stop,” Derek says. 

“I stole your bed,” Reid says. He says it like it’s an answer to Derek’s comment, but it just leaves Derek confused. He gestures for Reid to explain. 

“So you deserve hot coffee the most,” Reid adds. 

Derek can’t argue with that.

When Derek walks into the station behind Hotch that morning, the first thing he notices is the warmth. The AC is off. Instead, half a dozen fans sit strategically throughout the station, making lazy passes over loose paper. The other cops don’t seem thrilled with this, but they also aren’t complaining. Derek catches Hotch’s eye. Hotch shakes his head imperceptibly as they make their way to the evidence board. Detective Mitchell is on the phone in his office. He doesn’t look up as they pass him.

At lunchtime, JJ and Reid pull into the station. Derek watches with a slight frown as Reid braces himself before pulling the door open. He looks pale and a little sweaty, like he’s about to pass out, or throw up, or both.

“You two get lunch?” he asks lightly as they join them. JJ shakes her head.

“No, we wanted to see if you wanted to join us,” she says. Derek can read between the lines.  _ We don’t want to be left alone in Georgia _ . Reid leans up against the wall and stares at his shoes.

Detective Mitchell closes the door to his office quietly and makes his way over to them. He looks smaller today, somehow. Yesterday he was inflated with anger and anxiety, but today he walks towards them, calmer and slower.

“I just got off the phone with my buddy up in Atlanta,” he says. His voice is low and controlled, like he’s trying to sound gentle. Derek shoots a puzzled look at Hotch.

“He’s a sergeant in the Atlanta Police Department,” Mitchell continues. “Seems they had some trouble up there in February.” Derek’s heart drops and everyone suddenly goes still. JJ stares blankly out the window. Reid doesn’t look up from his shoes.

“That was you?” Mitchell asks. Hotch clears his throat.

“It was,” he says.

“And Doctor Reid, you were--” Mitchell doesn’t finish the question. Reid jerks his head once without looking up from the floor.

“Yes,” Hotch answers for him.

Mitchell looks at Reid for a long moment like he wants to say something, but he doesn’t get a chance. Their phones light up in a flurry of calls, and the case is closed two hours later in a hail of bullets. 

No one wants to stay in Georgia longer than they need to. Hotch sends the rest of the team to check out of the hotel and get settled in the jet while he and Gideon make the polite goodbyes to local law enforcement.

The flight home is the opposite of the flight out, silent except for the hum of the engines. Reid disappears into the bathroom, then returns with a drag to his feet and his eyes half-closed, like gravity is sucking him back to the ground. He wraps himself in a fuzzy fleece blanket, drops onto the couch, and is asleep in seconds. Derek watches him for a minute, taking in the shallow rise of his chest and the stillness of his hands.

He pulls on headphones and settles back in his seat. Things are back to normal. 

His eyes flick over to Reid. 

The way his eyes roll under his eyelids.

At least, they  _ will _ get back to normal.

The little niggle of worry.

Eventually.


End file.
